Canoe Slalom Worlds officially open- Race Day!

On Tuesday night in the centre of the Slovak capital city Bratislava, the opening ceremony for the 2011 Canoe Slalom World Championships was held! Heather and I made our way down and met up with the rest of the New Zealand team to enjoy the celebrations.
Wednesday the racing began! Kicking off with the C2Men at 1pm, the Women were next to follow at 2. Unfortunately the wind gods were out in force and this caused for some crazy conditions! I was feeling pretty nervous and excited! The course was fairly straightforward and I felt confident on all the moves. Despite the crazy wind conditions the competition continued to run.
I went into my run feeling good and driving hard into the first upstream. My top and middle sections were really smooth, clean and fast! Then at gate 16 I incurred a 50! I carried on to finish strong and ended with a time that would have put me into 1st place, a 109sec. Unfortunately, because of my 50 second penalty I was put well down the list. I lost time when I incurred the 50 and it set me back a lot. Without this I would have placed 14th in the end, which for me would have been an awesome result! As gutted as I was with the 50 it was really good for my confidence to know my paddling was on target and I now know I am fast enough!
Ella Nicholas ended with the best result for the NZ women (although she races for the Cook Islands) placing in 17th!
Due to the crazy wind conditions they ended up cancelling the race. This meant that first runs have been nullified and Qualification runs 1 and 2 will commence today, if weather permits! I am feeling good and know what to do, I just need to have a repeat of my 1st run without the mistake at gate 16 and I will be in the game!

Big thanks to my beautiful sister Heather for helping coach and support me! Also to Jane Borren, Les Dawson, Sue Clarke, and all the others that were out supporting yesterday! And of course my parents and everyone back home, thanks for the messages:)


Pics from our day trip to Vienna, Opening ceremony, dinner with Nouria and the last drop on the course! Photo credit- Heather Jull and Sue Clarke